City ends reserved soccer at Mission Playground after Dropbox flap

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department has decided to end reserved adult play at Mission Playground — the site of a video-recorded confrontation between tech workers and locals that went viral — after meeting with a group of neighborhood kids on Wednesday, according to department director Phil Ginsburg.

Ginsburg said park officials met with a combination of kids and youth soccer advocates and came to the conclusion that, in this instance, the need for unstructured play on weekday evenings outweighed the desire to accommodate adults.

“The most compelling suggestions came from the kids who said, ‘This is a safe place we can come and play and we feel like we need more time,’” said Ginsburg. “Our first priority is kids. We are always striving to balance different types of play.”

Youth teams will continue to be able to reserve the field after school until 7 p.m.

The decision comes after Dimitri Barton, who grew up near Mission Playground and now plays soccer at Skidmore College in upstate New York, posted a video showing a group of Dropbox employees and Mission District kids arguing over the use of the field at 19th and Valencia streets. The incident occurred in August but the video wasn’t posted until late September.

While Dropbox apologized for the incident, the employees in question had gone through the proper channels to reserve the field. Still, in interviews several kids involved in the incident said they were frustrated at getting increasingly squeezed off the field, both by adults and organized youth teams. The field was traditionally used for seven-on-seven pick up games.

In an interview, Barton said he had been upset at the impacts of gentrification in the Mission District but “hadn’t found an opportunity to stand up to it until it made its way onto the soccer field.” He said the outcome shows “what can happen when we stick together and be active during these times of rapid change.”

The incident has become something of a political soccer ball. Proponents of a plan to build four synthetic turf fields at Beach Chalet argue that the incident exposes the lack of fields in the city. Those who oppose the Beach Chalet project say the Mission Playground conflict shows what happens when city fields become “privatized.” The funding for the proposed Beach Chalet project would come from the same private foundation that bankrolled some of the 2012 Mission Playground renovation, although it would continue to be owned and operated by the city.

Politics aside, Ginsburg said the whole incident has been heartening.

“The intensity of use at Mission Playground is affirming and underscores the need for more field time and more resources for recreation and parks,” he said.